A historic Ohtani sends the Dodgers to the World Series

The rich history of Major League Baseball has never seen anything like it: a starting pitcher leading his team in the decisive game of a playoff series while hitting a home run; but not one, not two, but three home runs. That doesn't exist. That's fiction.

In the world of Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers, that does exist. And now they're back in the World Series trying to defend their title.

Ohtani, on his most impressive night, hit three solo home runs—one of them out of the park—to back his own six scoreless innings as a starting pitcher, single-handedly giving the Dodgers a 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night and completing a four-game sweep of the National League Championship Series.

In the World Series, the 23rd in their illustrious history, the Dodgers will face the winner of Seattle and Toronto. The Mariners beat the Blue Jays 6-2 on Friday and have a three-games-to-two lead in the American League Championship Series.

The Dodgers' four starting pitchers in the Championship Series combined for just two runs and nine hits in 28.2 innings against the team that won the most games in the Major Leagues this year. They struck out 35 batters.

Ohtani, who before the game had just six hits in 38 at-bats in these playoffs, had insisted that his work as a pitcher was not affecting his offensive performance. His epic performance on Friday puts an end to that conversation.

Shohei Ohtani's legendary first inning

Ohtani started the game with a bang and made history. After walking the leadoff batter Brice Turang, the right-hander struck out Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich, and William Contreras in succession.

The 31-year-old Japanese then approached his team's dugout, donned his gloves, helmet, and pads, grabbed his bat, and walked to the batter's box. On the sixth pitch from left-hander Jose Quintana, a slow ball,Ohtani hit one of the most powerful hits of his life: 116.5 miles per hour, traveling 446 feet to the right-field bleachers.

The player who has redefined the meaning of talent and who continually achieves historic feats, gave his fans an astonishing and unprecedented start to the game. And he did it for nothing less than to lead the Dodgers to the World Series.

After Ohtani hit the veteran Colombian pitcher, Mookie Betts and Will Smith singled, and with one out, Tommy Edman drove in the second run with a single to center. A weak grounder to first base by Teoscar Hernandez drove in the early 3-0 for Los Angeles.

Dodgers starters

The hermetic pitching was the Dodgers' hallmark in the Championship Series. The performance of their starting pitchers against Milwaukee evoked other times in baseball when the entire weight of the games was placed on the aces before the purification of relief pitching.

And the four starters chosen by manager Dave Roberts responded with performances worthy of their reputation. Some of them didn’t pitch much in the regular season due to injuries or physical setbacks, but what they’ve done in this series is no longer normal:

– Blake Snell pitched 8 innings in Game 1: 0 runs, 1 hit, 10 strikeouts.– Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched 9 innings in Game 2: 1 run, 3 hits, 7 strikeouts.– Tyler Glasnow pitched 5.2 innings in Game 3: 1 run, 3 hits, 8 strikeouts.– Shohei Ohtani pitched 6 innings in Game 4: 0 runs, 2 hits, 10 strikeouts.

The Brewers had just 9 hits in the first three games of the series. On Friday, they didn’t get their first hit against Ohtani until the fourth inning when Venezuelan Chourio opened the inning with a walk-off double to the left-field corner. But Ohtani rallied by retiring the next three batters, including strikeouts of Contreras and Jake Bauers.

100 pitches, three home runs for MVP Ohtani

Ohtani's 100th pitch was his last of the game as he gave up a single to Contreras that put men on first and second to start the seventh inning. The game was already 4-0 due to the second home run by the reigning NL MVP and favorite to win it again this year.

The fourth-inning shot was estimated at 469 feet above the right-center field seats.

For the Brewers, the threat of the seventh was one of their last calls, but reliever Alex Vesia, who has become a guarantee for manager Roberts, put out the fire, including a grounder by Sal Frelick into a double play to shortstop Mookie Betts.

And in the bottom of the inning, after one out,Ohtani responded to the chants of “MVP, MVP” at Dodger Stadium by sending the ball into the left-center field seats (427 feet) for a 5-0 score against pitcher Trevor Megill, in an unreal scene. Three solo home runs on the same night in which he was the starting pitcher.

The Brewers finally broke the shutout in the eighth against the bullpen. Brice Turang drove in the ball with a grounder. Blake Treinen was credited. Roki Sasaki, Los Angeles’ fifth pitcher, retired the ninth to get the Angels’ party started. And there may be more.

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